Viewing Review: Doom Patrol Episode 11

This post contains spoilers from ”Frances Patrol’, episode 11 of DOOM PATROL. Keep your eyes away for those who are as emo as the opening credits.

‘Frances Patrol’ takes its name from an alligator in the story. That’s right. An alligator. The alligator ate and killed Bump Weathers, the guy who adopted Cliff’s daughter (Clara) and also had an affair with his wife. Now if you’ve been following DOOM PATROL religiously, you know that Cliff has been wanting to meet with his daughter for some time now. Bump’s death gives him the opportunity to do so. So, he goads Jane to allow Flit to transport him to a place called Salty Bump’s in Florida, and Rita tags along. After Flit transports the two to Florida, she returns back to Doom Manor.

Back at the manor, Vic is having an existential crisis. He learns from Grid after transporting his software consciousness in a desktop computer, that he is becoming more machine than man. After cutting his arm to verify the truth of this revelation, he naturally freaks out when he discovers Grid is not lying. At this time, Jane finds out that the character Flex Mentallo from a comic book (given by Danny the Street) has a wife named Dolores, and has decided to meet with them. Why is this so important? Because, this is their only lead to find The Chief, Niles Caulder.

Also in the episode, we are shown Larry’s reconciliation with his past. It turns out that the negative energy form was trying to help Larry make amends with John Bowers, Larry’s lover when he was still in the Air Force. All the scenes in previous episodes that show Larry in his dreams hooking up with John was actually the negative energy’s way of reconnecting them together in the present. Meaning, this wasn’t all just in Larry’s head. He was actually meeting with John’s psyche (soul?) in his dreams. All this time the negative energy was providing a way for Larry to come to terms with who he was with the person he loved the most. It’s really touching. And, by the end of the episode, Larry gets to meet John in person. With the personal visit and talk, it appears that Larry has gotten the closure he needed with that stage of his life. He also has a better appreciation of his negative energy counterpart. We are looking at a more focused Larry who has not only come to terms with his past, but also has begun to understand now that the negative energy form is not such a bad being after all. Hooray for Larry.

Though the same positive outlook cannot be said for Cliff and Vic. In Cliff’s case, he realizes that the only way to win Clara’s affection is to recover a watch that Bump had on him when he was eaten by Frances the alligator. He believes that by recovering the watch in the swamp, he can win Clara’s heart. After coming from the swamp with Rita, and recovering the watch from Frances(who I assume he kills), he heads on over to Salty Bump’s to return the watch to Clara. He chickens out, and just leaves the watch at the establishment for Clara to find without even talking to her.

In Vic’s case, when he goes with Crazy Jane to meet Dolores, he actually gets captured by some unknown individuals instead. He and Crazy Jane are separated leaving Jane trying to figure out how to find Vic. Later we find out that Vic was captured by minions of Darren Jones from the Bureau of Normalcy. Things are not looking good for Vic. No Dolores. No Flex Mentallo. Just a whole lot of trouble.

From this episode, Vic, Larry and Cliff are challenged with facing realities of their present by reconciling with their past. Of the three, Larry appears to be the lucky one with a more or less fixed resolution. Cliff still is a bit iffy with his relationship with his daughter. I’m not sure if that story line will get resolved anytime soon. As for Vic, I’m sure his situation will carry over to the next episodes. Crazy Jane will surely try to find Vic, and most probably enlist the other members of the the Doom Patrol. This will be easy for Crazy Jane considering she can easily move from place to place with Flit’s teleportation. Her and Rita appear to be the glue of the team at this point in time. There’s a scary thought. The schizophrenic and the prima donna are holding the team together. Just as well, since the men in the group are having some serious emotional challenges. This is just another aspect of the series that is quite appealing. You can pull anyone’s story as an anchor for the episode and it will still work. It has worked thus far. The inclusivity doesn’t allow for any one character to dominate the narrative. Though with Mr. Nobody in an episode, he most surely will dominate the narration.

‘Frances Patrol’ just highlights further that DOOM PATROL is a character driven series with an underlying plot. There is an end goal, but that doesn’t stop the characters from dealing with their internal challenges. These challenges allow for better character growth, and promote the overall narrative of DOOM PATROL. Pay attention to the details, they have proven to be invaluable in appreciating this groundbreaking series.